Bex came to stay!

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately I haven't been well the last couple of weeks (apparently laryngitis is very common among teachers, especially new teachers) and I have now been to the doctor, who signed me off work for the week. I'm not really allowed to talk, which I'm sure you can imagine is a huge challenge for me! However I am feeling much better now :) But last week, my friend Bex from home came to visit me in Austria, and we had a fantastic, relaxed weekend.

I picked her up from the airport on Wednesday and we headed back to Linz on the train. I took her for a little tour of Linz, but unfortunately it seemed Bex had brought the rain with her from England so the tour was cut a little short!

On Thursday I showed Bex a little more of Linz, including the cathedral and the main square.

We also went to my favourite cafe in Linz called the Jindrak. We had some English tea and Austrian strudel, and it was a great mix!

On Friday we travelled to Bad Gastein, a town in Salzburgerland about 3 hours from Linz. It is a very popular ski resort, and is home to some thermal baths. We were to stay over night in a hostel in Bad Gastein and spend Saturday at the thermal baths. This was the view from our hostel room balcony:

After checking in to our hostel, we went to a local restaurant where I introduced Bex to traditional Wiener Schnitzel. 

Saturday at the thermal baths was brilliant. It was a very relaxing day, and the outdoor pool was amazing! It was a very strange feeling though to be sat in 40 degree water looking at snowy mountains and knowing that the air temperature was around -2 degrees!

There were lots of different pools at the resort, for children, relaxation or fitness, as well as saunas. Bex and I booked in for massages in the afternoon, and I left feeling very relaxed!

Sunday was my last day with Bex, and since she was flying from Vienna we thought we'd make the most of the day and have a little look around Vienna. It was a beautiful spring day, and we enjoyed wandering around and looking at the sights. There were so many people out relaxing in the sunshine; it was wonderful. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon in Vienna:

St Stephan's Cathedral (Stefansdom)

St Stephan's Cathedral (Stefansdom)

St Stephan's Cathedral (Stefansdom)

St Stephan's Cathedral (Stefansdom)

St Stephan's Cathedral (Stefansdom) 

St Stephan's Cathedral (Stefansdom) 

St Peter's Church

St Peter's Church

Exploring the Hofburg Palace area

Exploring the Hofburg Palace area

Exploring the Hofburg Palace area

Exploring the Hofburg Palace area

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

Winter in Austria: Snow and Skiing

Hi everyone!

In the last two weeks, winter has really arrived in Austria. One morning when I was at the bus stop at 7am, the temperature was -16 degrees Celcius!! I'm not built for temperatures like this!

A few exciting things have happened in the last two weeks:

1. The snow came back! I went to stay at Emma Cate's house in Steyr and we woke up to heavy snow outside. And the snow is still here as well - it's so cold it's not melting, and we had more yesterday!

2. I went to see 'Joy' at the cinema and it was great! A film that makes you feel every emotion at the same time, I'd really recommend it.

3. I've got back into reading again, and I'm on my second book of the year. My first was 'Me Before You' by Jojo Moyes and the second is 'The Little Paris Bookshop' by Nina George. 

4. I taught at the primary school again and we learnt parts of the body, colours and numbers up to ten. Next time, we're going to draw and describe monsters, which I'm very excited about! I'm always amazed at how quickly they pick things up. Some of them can't really read or write yet, yet they are able to memorise vocabulary in a foreign language and even sing songs like 'Silent Night' without ever reading the words!

5. The Student Language Bureau (an organisation which provides jobs for students abroad) are starting up a blog site and are going to feature a blog from me every two weeks!

6. I bought a ball gown for a Viennese ball I'm going to next week - pictures to come in the next blog post!

7. Yesterday, I went skiing for the first time with Carissa. It was great! Not as terrifying as I thought it might be, apart from the final slope we attempted in order to get down the mountain...we ended up being rescued by one of the piste machines because the slope was difficult and they were about to close the slopes! But apart from that, I'm very proud of myself for trying, and I had a great day! Here are some pictures...

Stopping for refreshments in the restaurant

Me in the all-in-one ski suit I borrowed from me housemate!

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

Christmas holidays and returning to Austria :)

Hi everyone!

I'm now back in Austria after a lovely Christmas in England.

I had a great Christmas holiday, which included seeing lots of family and friends, eating lots of lovely food, and celebrating my little sister's 18th birthday by taking her away to the Harry Potter Studios in Watford! Here are a few pictures from my Christmas:

Rachel and I with our grandparents

Rachel and I with our grandparents and cousins

An amazing Dartmoor sunset

I spent New Year with these lovely people

I got to meet adorable puppies on the farm! Unfortunately they didn't want to come back to Austria in my suitcase :(

Rachel with the hand made birthday cake from our hotel!

Practising for going to Hogwarts in September!

My first try of butterbeer ft. butterbeer moustache

The Great Hall

Mum, Rachel and I in the Mirror of Erised

Rachel and I trying out Hagrid's flying motorbike

No. 4 Privet Drive

I flew back to Austria on Monday, and spent the next couple days working on a deadline for university. I started back at work on Thursday and have been doing a lesson on extreme weather and ways of talking about the weather in English. The students particularly liked how many words for rain we have in the English language! The idea for this lesson was sparked by the floods in England at the moment, and I hope everyone back home is staying safe with the bad weather!

Having left rain behind in England, I was very excited to come back to the first proper snow this winter in Austria! It was beautiful, and whilst a lot of it has now melted, we did make the most of it by building a snowman after work on Friday. However, the Austrians don't tend to play in the snow...so we did get a lot of weird looks!

You know it's cold when a lake is frozen over!

The beautiful snow near one of my schools

Our snowman!

Yesterday I went on my first adventure of the new year. We went to Passau, which is just over the border into Germany. It is a beautiful town, and we had a lovely day doing some exploring. Here are a few photos from the trip:

The inside of St Paul's Church 

The inside of St Stephan's Cathedral 

The monastery up on the hill

The Danube river

In Passau, three rivers meet. This is the exact point where all three come together.

The view from the Veste Oberhaus

Thanks for reading!

Laura

My First Thanksgiving

Hi everyone :)

Yet again this week has flown by! Apart from work I've done a few exciting things:

1. I went to see the new Sound of Music film. It's a modern-day take and the story is told from Agathe's point of view, the oldest daughter in the Von Trapp family. There aren't all the famous songs, but it's the same story and it's a good film. I'd definitely recommend it.

2. I went on a lovely walk with Chloe, one of the British TAs in Linz, at a little lake near where she lives. It was freezing, but the sun came out (between snow showers) and the view was beautiful.

3. I found a 1kg limited edition jar of Nutella with Santa's face on it in my local supermarket, and naturally I bought it...

4. I spent most of my weekend working on my 1000 word progress report (in German) for Southampton University. It's a report on my year abroad research project, saying what I've done so far and what my plans are. I have finally completed it, and have a plan of action for the next few weeks, so that is good!

5. As a reward for finishing my progress report, I baked some Christmas biscuits. These are the ones that didn't end up burning (the oven likes to cook stuff quicker at the edges of the tray...)...but the burnt ones didn't go to waste! ;)

6. On Sunday afternoon, I celebrated my first ever Thanksgiving. Being me, I took along the most British dish I could think of: apple crumble. The food was amazing, and Carissa very much enjoyed my reactions to all the new foods - sweet potato casserole was definitely my favourite! It was such great fun to spend time with lots of the TAs from Upper Austria, and it made me realise how thankful I am for the wonderful friends I have made since moving to Austria. 

Chloe, Carissa and I post-dinner :)

Carissa and I post-dinner :)

The thing I am most excited about right now though, is that Mum, Alison and Jen are coming to visit me next weekend, and I cannot wait to see them! I'm sure next week's blog post will include lots of adventure, and many pictures!

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)